I tasted pickled seaweed last weekend. A peanut butter jar with a red lid was on the dinner table. Salmon filets on the barbecue. Home made potato salad with chives flowers on top in the huge garden on the island of Kirkøy, the last one accessible by car in Hvaler, South East Norway.
It sounds like this is a place up North where almost no people still live facing the deep, dark and cold Norwegian Sea. The name was given by Henrik Mohn in 1877 despite protests from the British that had been sailing this sea hundreds of years before the Norwegians.
So, we are on a summer cabin in peaceful Hvaler, calm sea and close to Sweden where Norwegians from this part of Norway do their weekly shopping to save money.
Tar in a jar
«What’s this?” I ask looking at the peanut butter jar. «Pickled seaweed” my wife’s aunt answers.
I take a bite. Sweat, mild taste. No doubt this from the sea. Soft, tender almost. Goes very well with the salmon.
The seaweed chef gives me the recipe:
«The weed is best when it is harvested early spring, in March. This is before the snow melts up in the mountains bringing fresh water into the rivers that end up East of Hvaler. That is when the ocean is the cleanest.
But I prefer to harvest in November. That works well too. Use the fresh sprouts, which means the outermost parts of the weed. I usually harvest lots of seaweed and pick the sprouts when I get up. Put the remaining seaweed in a bucket for six months. This is excellent fertiliser.»
Also read: Sea weed bonanza
The Seaweed industry
Humans have been eating seaweed for thousands of years. For big fishing nations like Norway however, this is a whole new industry. Tekslo Seaweed is one example. Symbolically the company was founded by a former petrol worker, Runar Trellevik from Sotra, West of Norway. Taco-spice, sea spaghetti and chocolate are some of their products.
Lofoten Seaweed produces truffle weed for 900 USD per kilo to Michelin restaurants Maaemo and Fagn. By 2050 Norway has the potential to produce 20 millions tonnes of seaweed with annual worth of 4,6 billion USD.
Seaweed contains lots of good stuff like proteins, fibre, minerals and antioxidants.
Next step: Cooking
With other words, industrialisation of the method described by the local seaweed chef here at Hvaler.
«When I have gathered the sprouts, I wash them off and boils it for half an hour. Add some salt. Make sure to wash the seaweed in water not warmer than 17 degrees celsius. Otherwise it gets sticky.
Then I make the pickling liquid of sugar and vinegar, 50-50 each. I add allspice, whole pepper, carnation and fresh ginger. You find out how much of each is needed. Bring this to boil for 30 minutes and put the seaweed and boil for another 20 minutes. Then you pour it into boiling hot jars.
If you put the seaweed in hot glasses for sterilising be ware that the vinegar will colour the lid. It doesn’t matter, it just looks less delicate. You can put a layer of thin plastic between the lid and the jar to avoid that. Or you can use plastic jars, like the one we have here. That works well too. That’s it. Enjoy!”
After this delicious seaweed meal I decide that next winter, I will go seaweed harvesting. Maybe combined with a windsurf session during one of the autumn storms. Looking forward to it.
06/06/2020
